Lithium composite metal oxides are used for the positive electrode active materials in nonaqueous electrolyte secondary batteries such as a lithium secondary battery. The lithium secondary batteries have been put to practical use as power sources for such as portable telephones and note book computers and attempts are made to further apply the lithium secondary batteries to middle or large scale applications such as automobile applications and power storage applications.
A lithium-nickel-manganese-M composite oxide (M is Fe, Co, Cr or Al) is disclosed in JP-A 2002-100356 as the lithium composite metal oxide to be used for the positive electrode active material of conventional lithium secondary batteries.